!--But, mademoiselle, what is come over you? Think seriously
before you leave your home.

Pauline
Do you wish to see me die?

Marguerite
Die!--Oh, mademoiselle, I will at once obey your wishes.

Pauline
Marguerite, tell M. Ferdinand to bring me my year's allowance; bid him
come this moment.

Marguerite
He was under your windows when I came in.

Pauline (aside)
Under my windows!--doubtless he thought that he would never see me
again.--Poor Ferdinand!

(Exit Marguerite.)

SCENE FIFTH

Pauline (alone)
When I think of leaving my father's house, it at once comes home to me
that my father will seek me many a day, far and wide. With what
treasures love ought to repay me, for such sacrifices, for I abandon
to follow Ferdinand my country, my father, and my home! But at any
rate, this shameless woman will lose him without hope of restoration!
Moreover, I shall return! The doctor and M. Ramel will win for me
forgiveness from my father. I think I hear the step of Ferdinand!
--Yes, it is actually he!

SCENE SIXTH

Pauline and Ferdinand.

Pauline
Oh, my love, my Ferdinand!

Ferdinand
And I thought that I should never see you again! Marguerite, I see,
knows all.

Pauline
She knows nothing yet; but this night she shall learn of our flight,
for we shall be free; and you shall take your wife with you.

Ferdinand
Oh, Pauline, do not deceive me!

Pauline
I was making arrangements to rejoin you in your place of exile; but
this odious woman has hurried on my resolution. There is no merit in
what I am doing, it is a question of life and death to me.

Ferdinand
Of life and death! Tell me what has she been doing?

Pauline
She almost poisoned me; she drugged me, in order to take the letters I
carried about me! By what she has dared to do, in order to keep you
for herself, I judge what she yet may do. If therefore we wish to be
united, our only hope lies in flight. Therefore let us not say
farewell! This night we must find some refuge or other--But where?
That lies with you.

Ferdinand
Ah! These words,--how wild with joy they make me!

Pauline
Ferdinand! Take every precaution; hurry to Louviers, go to the house
of your friend, the prosecuting attorney; secure our passports, and a
carriage with fast horses. I fear that my father, urged on by this
stepmother, may try to overtake us! May he fail to do so; he would
kill us, for I am telling hi